


Stupid

by buoyantsaturn



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Coffee Shops, M/M, Misunderstandings, Overuse of italics, Songfic, its a lot of angst yall, kinda???, singer will solace
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-13
Updated: 2018-06-13
Packaged: 2019-05-21 23:16:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14924708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buoyantsaturn/pseuds/buoyantsaturn
Summary: Anyway, looked young and had an undercut and pale skin that didn’t do much to hide the bags under his eyes and - Will only noticed this after quite a bit of staring, admittedly - tons of tiny freckles. They were usually hidden by long sleeves or when his bangs occasionally brushed across his cheeks, but Will knew they were there. He was pretty,  so pretty, honestly, and Will knew that he couldn’t be single, nobody that pretty was ever single, so of course when Will saw Blond Superman handing Pretty Boy a coffee and sitting down across from him, Will knew he didn’t have a chance.





	Stupid

**Author's Note:**

> hello i wrote this fic on november 15 2016 and im just now posting it i hope u enjoy even though its hella old and ive gotten way better at writing since then
> 
> based on the song Stupid by Brendan McLean
> 
> in my google drive this fic was titled "i heard this song and" bc i heard that song and wrote the fic

There was this coffee shop a few blocks off campus that offered Will a handful of dollars (plus tips, if they were given) to play his guitar and sing every so often. Will - super thankful for the money, don’t get him wrong - honestly thought he was terrible at anything musical. There had to have been _someone_ else that had an ounce more talent than Will, but it wasn’t like he was going to turn this down, especially when the “job” came with one free coffee a day. He needed those coffees to survive until he got into med school.

His friends also worked there, that was something else.

Ooh, and that one boy that came into the shop a few times a week.

He looked young enough that he might’ve gone to the high school across town, but Will had seen him around campus, too, and he was pretty sure they lived in the same dorm building? Maybe not.

Anyway, looked young and had an undercut and pale skin that didn’t do much to hide the bags under his eyes and - Will only noticed this after quite a bit of staring, admittedly - tons of tiny freckles. They were usually hidden by long sleeves or when his bangs occasionally brushed across his cheeks, but Will knew they were there. He was _pretty,_  so pretty, honestly, and Will knew that he _couldn’t_ be single, nobody that pretty was ever single, so of course when Will saw Blond Superman handing Pretty Boy a coffee and sitting down across from him, Will knew he didn’t have a chance.

So he played some covers of some songs every couple of days at the coffee shop and Pretty Boy was always there, too, and Blond Superman was with him about ninety percent of the time. Will figured that the other ten was just when he was buying another drink or going to the bathroom or something.

Even so, after Will finished his set one night (it looked like he got at least twenty dollars in tips, _very nice),_  he packed up his things and was about to leave when he saw Pretty Boy sitting alone at his usual table. It took Will a second, but he didn’t remember seeing Superman there with him at all that night, so he cautiously moved toward the table.

He greeted Pretty Boy, a simple, _Hi, I’m Will,_  but somehow seemed to have still startled Pretty Boy, who looked up at him with wide eyes. Pretty Boy said his name was Nico. _Nico._  Pretty name to match the pretty face, Will thought, and Nico offered him the empty seat across the table.

They talked for a short while - about Will’s music, about the coffee shop, school - and Will found out that Nico was an english major at Will’s college, and _yes,_ they did live in the same dorm building.

Will also discovered that Superman’s name was Jason, and _not only_ was he Nico’s boyfriend (Will never actually asked if he was, but he was too afraid of the answer to do so, and thus continued assuming), they were also roommates. Great. Will now had a negative fifteen percent chance of ever dating Nico, ever.

They probably would’ve stayed longer, but the shop was closing up, and Nico was told to leave, while Will was told to clean up the “stage area.”

When Nico was gone and the sign on the door was flipped to _closed,_  Will was immediately attacked by Lou Ellen, the night time barista on Tuesdays and Thursdays, in the form of intrusive questions.

Most of these questions were along the lines of: “What’s he like?” “What’d you talk about?” “Did you ask him out?” “Why not?” and the last one before Will was allowed to leave: “You like him, though, right?”

Will couldn’t keep a tiny smile off his face, a smile that Lou thought looked a little bit sad. “Yeah, I think I do.”

 

Nico, safely returned to his and Jason’s dorm, immediately walked from the door to the couch, landing face first in the cushions without any regard to whoever was in the room, or the fact that he hadn’t taken off his shoes or jacket.

When he groaned (awfully loudly, considering his mouth was shoved against fabric and cushion stuffing), questions rose from the people around him; people that didn’t live there, he might add.

“What’s up, Neeks?” Piper asked from somewhere in the room. Nico hadn’t seen where he was before he flopped down on the couch.

He moved his mouth just far enough away from the cushion to be understood when he said, “He’s _nice."_

“Who’s nice?” asked Jason, the only other actual resident of the dorm.

“Why did he have to be nice?” Nico complained, ignoring his roommate’s question completely. “Why couldn’t he have been a douche? Why can’t he act like Leo? Then I wouldn’t have any problem ignoring his existence.”

“Bro!” came an indignant cry from the direction of the kitchen. If it had been anyone else (except maybe Percy) Nico probably would have apologized, but this was Leo, and he was probably taking their food again.

 _"Who’s_ nice?” Jason and Piper said together.

“Will! The coffee shop guitar guy,” Nico told him, aggressively flipping himself onto his back. “He’s smart, too, apparently. He’s pre-med. God, he’s going to be the hottest, nicest doctor in the world. He’s going to cure cancer by singing to people.”

“I’ve heard him, man,” Leo said, voice sounding much closer now, but Nico still couldn’t see him. “He’s not that great, average at best.” He squaked when Nico threw a pillow in his direction. “Bro, watch the food!”

 

Will wanted to talk to Nico again the next time he was at the coffee shop, but unlike the last time, Jason was there with him, and Will felt like he would’ve been intruding if he went over. So instead, he played his set and he thanked the audience and moved his things into the break room at the back of the shop.

He caught Nico’s eye, not that he’d meant to, but Nico smiled at him over Jason’s shoulder, and Will couldn’t help but smile back and wave a little bit.

(Lou had watched the exchange, and knew Will well enough at this point in their friendship to know that while Will’s smile looked a little tired to the outsider eye, she could tell there was quite a bit of sadness in it.)

(For just about the next month, actually, Lou was watching the same exchange over and over again. Whenever Nico was alone, Will would stay and talk with him, but the next night, _each_ next night, Jason would be back, and Lou could see just how emotionally drained Will really was.)

(The manager of the shop had to talk to Will after a particularly mellow set one night about how if Will was wearing himself too thin between classes and homework and playing almost every night, that they could - and would - find someone else. Will had promised to fix up his sets and said he’d be taking his free drinks right before he went on from now on, and that seemed to appease the manager enough. Now, instead of being slow, tired, sad Will when he was onstage, he was suddenly almost angsty, and his songs were turning passive aggressive.)

Lou had taken matters into her own hands. The next time Jason came up to buy drinks for himself and Nico, Lou started up a conversation.

“So, Jason,” she began casually as she started on his drink, “you’re in here almost every night it seems.”

“Yeah, uh, my roommate really likes the music,” Jason answered.

“Roommate, huh?” Lou repeated. “Just that, nothing more?” She waggled her eyebrows at him as she handed him one of the drinks he’d ordered - just to make sure he _got her gist._

Jason laughed a little bit, maybe just a tad uncomfortable talking to a complete stranger about this. “No, no, he’s uh, he’s got a thing for the singer,” Jason told her, tipping his head in the direction of the stage.

“Really?” Lou exclaimed, handing over the other drink - a hot chocolate for Nico. “Well, I happen to know for a fact that Will has a bit of a thing for your friend, as well. And hey, since you’re not stuck behind a counter for the rest of the night, maybe you can do something about that, huh?” With that, Lou turned to the next customer in line, leaving Jason to awkwardly shuffle for a second before returning to his table.

Looked like he was going to need to call in reinforcements.

 

 _"If you weren’t so stupid, I could have loved you,"_  Will sang as he strummed his guitar, tapping his foot to keep the beat as best he could. It took a lot of energy to focus on the song and not start scanning the audience for Nico - _and_ _Jason,_ most likely.

_"Tell me what is his name now? What is his name, I’m excited to hear the news. Tell me what is his name now? And what does it say about you?”_

Will messed up his strumming for a second, but thought that he’d probably recovered fast enough that nobody noticed. Will made the mistake of looking up again, just as _Jason_ handed Nico a drink and sat down across from him. He watched - somehow managing to keep singing and strumming without fault - as Jason pulled out his phone. Nico was watching Will closely, and Will starting singing directly to him (as if he’d been singing to anyone else for the last month).

_"If you made me a coffee, I could have loved you. And I’d make you hot chocolate, and anything you wanted.”_

Will’s eyes dropped back to the frets, maintaining focus as his voice pitched to falsetto. _“We’d adopt, we’d have dogs. I have all the things he’s got."_

 _"So let’s stop,"_  he froze, pausing for a couple of beats and keeping his eyes downcast. _"Pretend, that there’ll be a happy end. Let’s not be friends, for sure."_

_"We’d adopt, we’d have dogs, I have all the things he’s got. But I’m not."_

He stopped strumming, his foot ceased its tapping, and kept his eyes trained on the ground in front of him. He didn’t realized, until after a took a few breaths, how _angry_ he felt, and only kicked himself out of his frozen state when he remembered that he was still sitting in front of an audience (who, mostly, weren’t even paying attention to him, honestly). He mumbled his usual _thank you_ into the mic, and packed up his things before rushing, faster than usual to the break room in the back of the shop.

He didn’t look toward Nico for the usual sad-smile-and-pathetic-wave. (Which meant he missed Piper’s arrival. Which meant he missed the fact that Jason was very much in a relationship with this girl and _not Nico._ Which meant that he missed Nico’s usual bright smile and then _un_ usual vaguely hurt and confused stare as his eyes followed Will and stayed on the firmly shut door that separated them.)

(When Will didn’t come out for another ten minutes, Nico stood abruptly from the table and went to the tip jar sitting by the cash register. He grabbed a napkin and borrowed a pen from Lou and scribbled out a note. He fished out his wallet and took whatever money he could find - a twenty dollar bill - and crumpled it around the note to make sure the two stayed together. He put the two in the jar, left the pen on the counter, went back to the table to grab his jacket, and was gone before Jason or Piper could react.)

 

Will hadn’t come out of the break room until the shop was closed and everyone besides Lou was gone. He helped clean up, and as Lou counted the register, Will took his tip jar to the closest table to count his earnings for the night.

There were a lot of ones, a lot of coins, the usual, though he was surprised to see a crumpled up twenty lying in the bottom amongst the coins. He started to flatten out the bill, only to notice a note folded up inside.

Will took out the note, smoothing out the creases and reading the unfamiliar writing.

 _Will_ , it started. _Are you upset? Did I do something wrong? Please talk to me so I can know what I did to make you look so angry._ _\- Nico_

“Shit,” Will breathed, slamming the heels of his palms into his eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Lou asked, still mostly focused on the register.

“He thinks I’m mad at him,” Will moaned. “Lou, he probably thinks I hate him, what do I do?”

Lou’s head snapped up from the money before her. “What, you mean Nico? What do you mean? I thought he gave you his number! I mean, he looked kind of upset, but I thought that was just because he was sick of waiting for you to make a move!”

“He thinks he did something _wrong."_  Will couldn’t breathe. He felt like his ribs were broken. “How do I fix this?”

“He didn’t leave you a number?” Lou asked. “You live close, right? Do you know which room is his?”

“Even if I did,” Will started, “he lives with _Jason."_

Suddenly, Lou was there with a calming hand on Will’s shoulder. “Will, hun, you know they’re not dating, right?”

“Of course they are, Lou, they’ve lived together since freshman year, Jason’s _always_ with him, Nico talks about him _all the time."_

“So, you didn’t see Jason’s girlfriend here earlier, then?”

“What?” Will’s head snapped up from his hands.

“Jason’s girlfriend. I think I heard that her name’s Piper?” Lou told him. “Very pretty. Very tan. Her eyes were like kaleidoscopes.”

“Lou,” Will started, but Lou snapped, “What, you’re the only one here allowed to be super gay?”

“That’s not what I’m saying,” Will argued. “I’m _saying,_  how could you not tell me sooner?”

“That I’m hella gay? C’mon, you knew that.”

“Not _that!"_  Will shouted. “How could you not tell me earlier that Jason had a girlfriend?”

“What, I’m just supposed to shout across the room that Pretty Boy and Superman weren’t dating? I found out in the middle of your set, idiot, otherwise I _would’ve_ told you sooner.”

Will sighed, head dropping back into his hands. “I’m sorry, Lou. But what am I supposed to do now? He probably hates me.”

Lou read over the note still sitting on the table. “Well, if he wants to talk to you about it, then I think he probably doesn’t hate you.”

“But how do I find him? What do I say?”

“Ask your RA if they know where he lives. Start there. Apologize, confess your love, hope he doesn’t turn you down.”

Will whined into his hands.

“C’mon, loser, I gotta close up and you gotta study for that test tomorrow.”

 

Turned out, Will didn’t need to find his RA to track down Nico. He was sitting outside Will’s dorm when he came around the corner.

Nico jumped to his feet as soon as he saw Will. “What did I do?”

“How did you know where I live?” Will asked instead of answering.

 _"Will,_  what did I do to make you mad at me?” Nico pleaded, and Will didn’t know how much more of this he would be able to take.

“Come inside,” he said instead.

They sat on the couch, as far away from each other as possible.

“What do you want from me?” Will asked, and cringed at his own words.

“What do I-- What do you mean?” Nico seemed like he was getting angry. “I want to know what I _did."_

“Two weeks ago,” Will tried again. “What did you want from me two weeks ago? Or yesterday, even, what did you get out of talking to me?”

Nico hesitated. “I don’t understand. Was it not clear that I _liked you,_  Will? Did you not get that I wanted to _get to_ _know_ you?”

Will nodded, eyes on the empty space between them. “Wanted to. Do you still want to?”

“If I didn’t, then why would I be here? I have class in the morning, you know,” Nico said. “I don’t have to be here, trying to figure this-- Whatever this is, out. I could just go home--”

“To Jason, yeah,” Will said, and the second the words were out of his mouth, Will put his head in his hands. “I’m sorry, Nico, I’m so sorry. I’m an idiot. I thought, since he was always there with you, I thought you and Jason were together. I thought that all those times you talked to me, you were just being nice, making friends, whatever. God, you have no idea, Nico. I’ve liked you for _so long._ Sometimes, I couldn’t keep my eyes off you when I was playing, and you made me mess up _so many times_ because I was looking at you and not the guitar. You’ve never done _anything_ wrong, and you should never think that, and I’m so sorry that you did.”

Everything was silent for a moment, and Will didn’t think he was breathing. He would’ve heard it if he was, right?

“The first night, Jason dragged me there because I wouldn’t leave the apartment unless it was for class,” Nico said quietly. “And I saw you, and then it was me dragging Jason out so often. Eventually he started ditching me because his girlfriend was getting jealous. He never thought to just invite her, too. I guess he should’ve. But... She was there tonight, didn’t you see her? Or, no, you wouldn’t have, because you wouldn’t even look in my direction.”

“I’m so sorry,” Will whispered. Nico’s words were like a punch to the gut and a slap in the face at the same time. “Please, is there any way that you can forgive me? For all of this?”

Will finally pulled his hands away when he heard Nico hum in thought. Nico’s head was tipped against the back of the couch, eyes glancing somewhere off to the side, unfocused, and he had the faintest smile on his lips.

“I’ve been buying Jason coffee for a month now,” Nico said. “I think I’d let somebody else buy _me_ coffee for a change.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!!!  
> come talk to me on tumblr @buoyantsaturn


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